Funding

This website was originally developed to house data from the Comparative Genomics of Environmental Stress Responses in North American Hardwoods (NSF PGRP Award #1025974), headed by PI John Carlson (Penn State). The project period was from 02/01/2011 to 07/31/2015. More information is provided below.

We now have a graduate student (Ming Chen) supported by the NSF grant CIF21 DIBBS: Tripal Gateway, a Platform for Next-Generation Data Analysis and Sharing(NSF DIBBS Award #1443040), headed by PI Stephen Ficklin (Washington State University).

We are also funded by NSF PGRP #1444573 “Standards and Cyberinfrastructure that Enable "Big-Data" Driven Discovery for Tree Crop Research”, headed by PI Dorrie Main at Washington State University

Original NSF Award

All below information is archived from the Comparative Genomics of Environmental Stress Responses in North American Hardwoods (NSF PGRP Award #1025974).

Most timberlands in the United States are natural forests, of which eastern hardwood forests comprise more than half. The eastern hardwood forests are complex biological systems, covering over 400 million acres of bottomland and riparian sites, major watersheds, mesic sites and upland xeric sites. These forests provide habitat and food for wildlife, stabilization of riparian zones, long-term carbon sequestration and other essential ecosystem services as well as wood and biomass products for human use. The increasing incidence of introduced exotic pests, diseases and invasive plants, combined with climate change and forest fragmentation, threaten the sustainability of these forest ecosystems. Unfortunately, few genomic resources are available for use in studying the consortium of hardwood species that compose the eastern forests. An interdisciplinary team is working together to develop new genomic resources for important species that represent the major taxonomic groups of eastern hardwood trees, from the oldest to more recently evolved, including:

The project is producing sequence databases for expressed genes, genetic markers, genetic linkage maps, and reference populations. This will provide lasting genomic and biological resources for the discovery and conservation of genes in hardwood trees for growth, adaptation and responses to environmental stresses such as drought, heat, insect pests and disease. These resources are being made available to the scientific community and the public through the project website (www.hardwoodgenomics.org). All original sequence data is being deposited in NCBI's Sequence Read Archive and the genetic linkage maps and associated marker data will be available at the Dendrome database. Our data policy is available here.

The broader impacts from this project include forest health, tree improvement, forest management, molecular evolution, scientific training, and public education. An increasing incidence of exotic pests and diseases, combined with climate change and forest fragmentation, are threats to the sustainability of forest ecosystems and economies. This project is providing powerful new tools to address such forest health issues and the protection and restoration of forest genetic diversity and productivity. The project is also filling gaps in available genomic resources for important groups of flowering plants, including the taxonomic orders Magnoliales (tulip poplar), Saxifragales (sweetgum), Fabales (honeylocust), Fagales (Northern red oak and black walnut), Sapindales (sugar maple), and Lamiales (green ash). These resources will enrich the scientific community's ability to study the evolution of not only woody plants, but also all angiosperms at a resolution and depth not previously possible. All of the data generated by the project is being deposited in high-visibility public community databases, and all gene clones, libraries, and reference population DNAs will be stored and available to the public at cost. Descriptions of the resources and analyses of the results will also be published as journal articles, at national and international meetings, and through this public website. This project is providing training of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students in comparative genomics, evolutionary genomics, population genetics, bioinformatics and forest genetics. Educational programs on plant genomics are being developed for Native American public schools in cooperation with the Cherokee Nation, and substantive research experiences is being provided to minority undergraduate students in collaboration with the University of West Alabama.